[interview] Station Audio: Lyon Graulty

I got into electronics as a kid after my parents got sick of me taking things apart and bought me an experimenters kit. Years later, after getting into electric guitar, I started taking those apart and rewiring the pickups and pots with coil cut switches, and phase/series witches. Building pedals was the natural extension of my curiosity in sound and electronics.

Where does the name come from?

I was looking for a name and it seemed like the word station kept coming up on my radar screen. I liked the ring of station audio so I kept using it.

Can you tell us something about the production process?

I etch all my circuit board and enclosures in house and I wire them all myself in my workshop in Austin TX.

I spend a lot of time getting each pedal to look the way it does, and because the etching process is so hard to predict, each pedal is truly one of a kind. The gritty aesthetic is one of the first things people notice about my pedals.

Is parts selection important?

I use old stock American made tubes in the Sparkle Punch.

What does the future of Station Audio look like?

I just got a writeup in WIRED, which has given the company some nice exposure. I'm hoping to continue to grow the company (in profits, production capacity and line of pedals) while continuing to offer exciting, useful and attractive pedals to guitarists. I have made a few amps and speakers cabinets in the past and hope to incorporate that into Station Audio.

Are you working on any new products?

I am working on an echo pedal due out later this summer. The project started as a tape echo simulator, but has evolved into something larger (self oscillation, sweepable EQ on the delay line). This should be a real game changer when it comes out.